PREPARE THE WAY OF THE LORD
Carl E. Olson
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All quotations from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, Catholic Edition (ESV-CE) with the deuterocanonical books of the Apocrypha are adapted from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. All rights reserved.
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ISBN 978 1 78469 662 7
Introduction
“Christmas”, stated Pope Benedict XVI during a General Audience in 2008, “is a privileged opportunity to meditate on the meaning and value of our existence.”1 There is much to contemplate in that single sentence. Do we, for example, think of Christmas as a “privileged opportunity”? As a chance to meditate on the what and why and how of our lives? Our existence? Our place in this world, in this time? Advent is a time of anticipation, expectation, awakening, reflection. But I knew nothing at all about Advent for the first twenty-five years of my life. Growing up as a young Evangelical Protestant, I certainly looked forward to Christmas, and our family celebrated the birth of Christ. But there really wasn’t much preparation; there was no season to help focus my thoughts and heart on what – on Who! – was coming.
Now, having been a Catholic for nearly a quarter of a century, for me Advent has become a favourite time of the liturgical year, for a number of reasons. Benedict XVI captured some of those reasons when he further stated in his audience:
1 Benedict XVI, General Audience, 17th December 2008.
The approach of this Solemnity helps us on the one hand to reflect on the drama of history in which people, injured by sin, are perennially in search of happiness and of a fulfilling sense of life and death; and on the other, it urges us to meditate on the merciful kindness of God who came to man to communicate to him directly the Truth that saves, and to enable him to partake in his friendship and his life.2
Drama. Search. Life. Death.
Mercy. Communicate. Truth. Saves. Partake. These are simple, mysterious, powerful words, for they point to the Word, Jesus Christ.
You might say that Advent is the drama that leads to the climax, the search that concludes with the answer, the meditation that is taken up into the Incarnate Word. And the Advent drama does not just look forward, but looks back at salvation history, looks up to the saving heavens, and even looks down at the earthly reality of where we are now. Advent is that time when eternity starts to break into our temporal existence and, if we open our eyes and hearts, breaks into our very being.
Just as creation had marked God’s action upon the cosmos, the Incarnation marked the beginning of the world to come. The first Advent was an outpouring of God’s grace upon an unsuspecting world. “Grace”, wrote French
2 Benedict XVI, General Audience, 17th December 2008.
Jesuit Jean Cardinal Daniélou3 in The Advent of Salvation: A Comparative Study of Non-Christian Religions and Christianity (Paulist Press, 1962, quoted more than once in this booklet) is “that bond between mankind and God which can never be broken, because it is founded on the manhood of Christ, in whom Godhead and manhood are henceforth joined together for ever… Christ has brought our humanity into the inmost life of God to stay.” We enter that life through baptism, are nourished with the Eucharist and become partakers of the divine nature: “The mystery of history is summed up in God’s design of giving his spiritual creatures a share in the life of the Trinity.”4
That is a startling, humbling, life-changing truth. If we really ponder it, it may well frighten us. Frankly, I think that that might be a good thing, as it would suggest an awakening from the all-too-common dullness of our modern lives. Praise God, we have companions for the journey. There is John the Baptist, who prepared a way for his cousin, the Messiah, by proclaiming that the Kingdom was at hand, and who also prepares the way
3 Jean Daniélou (1905-1974) was a professor at the Institut Catholique in Paris, a prolific scholar and author who occupied a key place in twentiethcentury Catholic theology. He is especially known for his dialogue with other world religions, his writings on the Church Fathers and Scripture, and his insights into the nature of divine revelation and Tradition. Daniélou was a theological expert at the Second Vatican Council and in 1969 was made a cardinal by Pope Paul VI.
4 Jean Daniélou, The Advent of Salvation, p. 33.
for us by preparing the way for deeper conversion. He complements Mary, who brings grace by being the Mother of God. Mary’s example of faith, of course, should inform our thoughts and shape our actions during Advent. Mary anticipated the birth of her Son for nine months and she now anticipates the birth of the New Creation when he returns in glory.
And then there is the cross. We don’t often think of it as a companion during Advent, but it is the way of Christ and of his disciples. We can only long for the coming of Christ and eternal life if we die to ourselves. We must know our place – in both this world and the world to come. God desires a unity of all men, in communion with the Father through the Son. The cross leads to unity; pride leads to death: “The greatest obstacle anyone can put to unity”, warns Daniélou, “is to want to make himself the centre of things.”
Finally, there is the King and the Kingdom. Jesus came once and he will come again, but he is not yet fully made known. “He is not”, wrote Daniélou, “fully manifest in mankind as a whole: that is to say, that just as Christ was born according to the flesh in Bethlehem of Judah so must he be born according to the spirit in each of our souls.” Advent is anticipation of, preparation for, and contemplation of the King. And that is why Benedict XVI emphasised that we must “prepare ourselves for Christmas with humility and simplicity, making ourselves ready to
receive as a gift the light, joy and peace that shine from this mystery”.5
My hope is that this booklet will help you to prepare, to embrace the drama, to fall more deeply in love with the One who shows us the what and why and how of our lives.
5 Benedict XVI, General Audience, 17th December 2008.
PART ONE
MEDITATIONS ON THE SUNDAY READINGS
One means of preparation for the coming of the Infant Christ is to delve more deeply into the readings from the Sunday Masses leading up to Christmas. The Sunday readings are proclaimed in a three-year cycle. Each liturgical year begins with the First Sunday of Advent. In 2021, the year this booklet is being published, the First Sunday of Advent begins Cycle C, so Advent 2022 will begin Cycle A, Advent 2023 will begin Cycle B, and so forth. To best make use of this booklet, you may wish to turn to the appropriate cycle of readings so that you are walking through Advent in step with the Church, meditating deeply on the Sunday readings you will hear at Mass this year. (Cycle A: page 12; Cycle B: page 28; Cycle C: page 41.) Christmas each year has the same readings, and preparatory reflections on these appear after Cycle C’s Advent readings (on pages 54-57).
Cycle A: First Sunday of Advent
Readings: Is 2:1-5; Ps 121:1-2, 3-4, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9; Rm 13:11-14; Mt 24:37-44
Advent is apocalyptic.
Perhaps you’ve never thought of it in that way. But today’s readings are revealing. I say “revealing” because the word “apocalypse”, from the Greek word apokalupsis, means “to reveal” or “to unveil”. Unfortunately, it has become primarily associated with destruction and violence. But even that understanding is somewhat accurate – even if it only hits part of the target.
Today’s Gospel reading, from Matthew 24, is one of three “little apocalypses”, the other two being found in Mark 13 and Luke 21. These discourses by Jesus about coming events are complex and difficult, in part because they use methods of Old Testament prophecy in speaking of the future, in part because they refer to both the destruction of the temple (AD 70) and the return of Christ at the end of time. One reason for this is that the destruction of the temple by the Romans was, in a very real sense, the end of the world for devout Jews since the
temple embodied God’s covenant with the Jewish people and was considered the dwelling place of God’s glory. Jesus himself is the new temple (Rv 21:22), the fulfilment of everything the Jerusalem temple pointed towards, but most importantly the radical, transforming and eternal communion of God with man.
Speaking to his disciples on the cusp of his Passion, Jesus exhorts them, “Therefore, stay awake!” These are words worth repeating to ourselves throughout the season of Advent. Wake up! Rouse yourself! Be alert! Why? Because the King is arriving. The adventus – the “arrival” or “coming” of the Lord – is fast approaching. “So, too,”
Jesus told the disciples, “you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.”
A big problem, as Monsignor Ronald Knox pointed out, is simply this: “We want our Lord to come, but not just yet.”6 Like Augustine, we find ourselves torn between wanting to fully commit ourselves to Christ while also holding on to those things that keep us from him: “Give me chastity and continence, but not yet.”7 Advent is a challenge against comfort, a call to stay awake, an invitation to confession.
“The drama of Advent”, wrote Knox in his book Lightning Meditations, “is that when we see everything going wrong with the world, we are tempted to be
6 Ronald Knox, Lightning Meditations (Sheed & Ward, 1959), p. 7.
7 St Augustine, Confessions, Bk VIII, Ch 7.
indifferent about it all.”8 This drama is also a paradox. Non-Christians (and, alas, many Christians) think that such focus on eternity keeps us from being committed to doing good in this world. But the Apostle Paul would have none of that false notion. He warned the Christians in Rome that they must awake from sleep and “throw off the works of darkness” so that they could “put on the armour of light” and conduct themselves properly. Holiness does not grow when heaven is forgotten; on the contrary, holiness on earth is the fruit of heaven growing within us. Such growth cannot and does not take place without destruction and violence: the dissolution of darkness and the death of sin.
Let’s go even further back, to the prophet Isaiah, who wrote of a coming time when all nations would stream towards the house of the Lord. Isaiah recorded a promise of salvation and a warning of judgement. This great work of salvation, however, requires humility and repentance. Walking in the light of the Lord only happens when we accept both his judgement and his mercy, acknowledging our desperate need and his gracious gift.
“Advent is the end of the Old Covenant,” explained Fr Hans Urs von Balthasar, “which genuinely looked for God’s coming.”9 The advent of the New Covenant took place two thousand years ago. But God’s coming also
8 Knox, Lightning Meditations, p. 8.
9 Hans Urs Von Balthasar, You Crown the Year with Your Goodness (Ignatius Press, 1989).
takes place at every moment, which is why St Paul wrote of the nearness of salvation while warning against the darkness of sinful pursuits. And it will be completed at the final advent, the second coming, which is why Jesus exhorted the disciples to be prepared at every hour for the hour – the hour of revealing, of apocalypse.
PART TWO
ADVENT AND THE HAIL MARY
This booklet is a companion to another CTS publication: Praying the Our Father in Lent. In that booklet I explored how the words of the “Our Father” can shape our Lenten preparations for Easter in a profound and fruitful way. In this booklet, I offer an exegesis of another beloved prayer of our Tradition, the “Hail Mary”. This is a prayer that many Catholics pray every day, some of us many times a day, either on its own or in the course of praying the Holy Rosary. The following thoughts are intended to help make this beautiful and glorious prayer a part of your own journey towards Christmas, a means of preparing your heart to welcome the Infant Christ.
Mary’s Gift of Self Points the Way
“
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee …”
An advent is a coming; it literally means “to come to”. The season of Advent anticipates the coming – or comings – of the Son: in his Incarnation two thousand years ago, in his future return in glory, and in the mystery of the sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states:
When the Church celebrates the liturgy of Advent each year, she makes present this ancient expectancy of the Messiah, for by sharing in the long preparation for the Saviour’s first coming, the faithful renew their ardent desire for his second coming. (CCC 524)
So Advent is ultimately concerned with the Son’s coming in glory, when he shall “judge the living and the dead”.
The Coming of Mary’s Son and Saviour
This might sound a bit unusual. After all, isn’t Advent about preparing for Christmas? And isn’t Christmas about celebrating the birth of the baby Jesus? It is, of course, but
there are other questions to ask: Why was that baby born in a manger twenty centuries ago? Why is he coming again –as a grown and glorified King – and what does this mean for us? Are we more comfortable with a babe in a manger than with a conquering King? What is our place in all of these events?
Pondering our place in salvation history brings us to the feet of Mary, the Mother of the Saviour. Introducing Redemptoris Mater, Pope John Paul II writes:
The Mother of the Redeemer has a precise place in the plan of salvation, for “when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’” (Ga 4:4-6)
Here, in a nutshell, is the essence of Advent. God initiates; Mary responds. God offers; mankind receives. This is the way of love and faith.
As the sinless, holy Mother of God, Mary is a unique creature. But her perfection and holiness do not make her aloof or inaccessible. Instead, the Mother of the Saviour is a mother for everyone. She draws us near, desiring to reveal the fullness of her Son to the Church and to the entire world. It is fitting, then, that these reflections on the four weeks of Advent will draw upon the “Hail Mary”
(dividing it into four parts) in contemplating the past, present and future advents of the Lord Jesus Christ. Mary is the perfect example of one who is prepared for the coming of God. Young, poor and unassuming, she would become, by her free choice, the Mother of God. Faithful to God’s promise, she embraced the first advent of her Son before it occurred. John Paul II describes Mary as: the one who in the “night” of the Advent expectation began to shine like a true “Morning Star”… For just as this star, together with the “dawn”, precedes the rising of the sun, so Mary from the time of her Immaculate Conception preceded the coming of the Saviour, the rising of the “Sun of Justice” in the history of the human race.29
Graceful Greeting for Grace-filled Lady
The simple words of the “Hail Mary” form a profound commentary on the coming of salvation, judgement, death, and eternal life. Formed from phrases found in Luke’s Gospel and the ancient Tradition of the Church, the “Hail Mary” is like a snapshot taken of the Virgin from the perspective of heaven, then offered to those willing to consider the depths of its beauty and truth. It begins with the words spoken at the Annunciation. The angel declared, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you!” (Lk 1:28). In Redemptoris Mater, John Paul II begins his
29 Redemptoris Mater, 3.
reflections on this marvellous remark by emphasising that the plan of salvation, which is a plan of grace beyond words, means God sent forth his Son, “born of woman…so that we might receive adoption as sons”. This announcement by the angel introduces Mary into the mystery of Christ. She is blessed by God “in a special and exceptional degree”, a reality recognised by her cousin Elizabeth, who calls her “blessed…among women” (Lk 1:42).
As the Catechism notes, “Full of grace, Mary is wholly given over to him who has come to dwell in her and whom she is about to give to the world” (CCC 2676). Mary’s “Yes” to God articulates the complete gift of herself to the God of Israel. “The grace with which she is filled”, John Paul observes, “is the presence of him who is the source of all grace.” And Christmas is about the gift of that source, the greatest gift ever given. It is salvation in Christ through sharing in supernatural, Trinitarian life. Put another way, it means coming into intimate, lifetransforming communion with God, the Source of all that is good, true and holy. It’s the same communion received in the Blessed Sacrament. It’s the same Lord who will come in glory to judge the living and the dead.
The Coming (Again) of the Incarnate One
The Annunciation – the announcement of grace and favour on the young maiden Mary – marks the first time that the reality of the Incarnation was made known. Mary is “full of
grace”, the Holy Father writes, “because it is precisely in her that the Incarnation of the Word, the hypostatic union of the Son of God with human nature, is accomplished and fulfilled.”30 Because Mary gave herself to God, God gives himself to mankind. The Son of God became the Son of Man so that by grace we might become what he alone is by nature: a true son.
Imagine the awe and wonder that Mary felt as the angel addressed her as “full of grace”. Advent is a time to contemplate and experience the same awesome, wondrous power in the coming of our Lord. It is a call to awaken, to look up, and to rejoice. In the words of St Paul: “the hour has come for you to awake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand” (Rm 13:11-12a).
Towards the Fulfilment of the Kingdom
Advent is a season of hope and preparation. For what? For the return of the Christ-child as Christ the triumphant King. Which is why the Gospel reading on the First Sunday of Advent is taken from the Olivet Discourse. In it Jesus talks about another advent, his coming in glory:
Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this: if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief
30 Redemptoris Mater, 9.
was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore, you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. (Mt 24:42-44)
During Advent there is a continual connection made between the first coming of the Son and his second coming. Yet the term “second coming” can be misleading, since the Son’s return is really a completion and fulfilment of his birth two thousand years ago, not some unrelated and disconnected event. In his Advent reflection in 2001, John Paul II highlighted the continuity between the two comings, writing: “Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Thanks to him, the history of humanity proceeds as a pilgrimage towards the fulfilment of the Kingdom which he inaugurated with his Incarnation and victory over sin and death.” For this reason, he explained, “Advent is synonymous with hope: not the vain waiting for a faceless god, but concrete and certain trust in the return of him who has already visited us.”
Catholics are sometimes reluctant to talk about the return of Christ. Perhaps they think the topic is the property of certain Evangelical Protestants whose focus on the “rapture” and Christ’s return can seem obsessive and imbalanced. Advent provides the right balance by rooting the return of our Lord in the Incarnation. “At his first coming he was wrapped in swaddling clothes in a
manger,” wrote St Cyril of Jerusalem in the fourth century, adding that “at his second coming he will be robed in vestments of heavenly light”. May hope, preparation, joy and light fill our hearts during Advent.